Good ol' beemer :)

[Turbo-Brown]

Ahh, just spent a few satisfying hours taking the front suspension and crossmember off Old-Brown.

No idea if it's been apart in the last 20 years, but all but two nuts came undone without any rust fuelled fight and quite a few fastners were still bright shiny chromate finished like new

It's a world away from rusted up Pug 205 bits!

[Templ8e30]

Beemer quality shines through again

I was working on a mates saxo VTR a couple of weeks ago 99 model 40k and the rear calipers were completely rusted into 1 lump, bag of sh!te. Horrible car to work on and handles like a soggy old sock

He used to have a 318is and thinks the saxo is better

Cheers,

Iain T

[Brianmoooore]

Had my car dealer brother in law help me remove the diff from an old E28 in a scrappy a few weeks ago. He couldn't believe the way all the bolts could be unscrewed with just fingers, once they'd been cracked off.

[Adammcf]

I found the same when I did the brakes and exhaust manifold studs. Once the initial grip was broke they just came out nice and easy! The only ones which were a bugger were the downpipe nuts.

Lets hope when I take the head off its the same.

[Turbo-Brown]

Arse. Spoke too soon!

I had to cut the old strut as the nut on top wouldn't come undone, and now the collar that secures the strut insert in place won't come undone

Still, subframe cleaned up nicely yesterday

[JazzMan]

Just spent the last week taking a touring to bits. The rear sub frame was a real pain to get off. The front one came right off all the bolts came undone quite easily.

However I still have the diff attached to the rear sub frame (those bolts come out, but...) as well as the drive shaft as I cant get the bolts undone! I am in the process of rigging up a giant spanner to see if I can persuade them off.

[Turbo-Brown]

Just used the "Giant spanner" method to get the shock inserts out. It consisted of welding a 3 foot long bar onto the collar and then pulling it hard.

I guess the heat freed it up a bit but it worked a treat.

There was a gallon of oil in the leg and the strut gave practically no resistance to being pushed in. Could explain the rather wayward handling it had!

God knows how it passed an MOT like that!

[Andy335Touring]

The struts are supposed to have oil in them,stops the inserts rattling around or some thing ?

[Brianmoooore]

Transfers the heat out. Only applies to some sorts of strut

[Jos]

Yup, great to work on compared to modern cars, only nuts that gave me a problem were the exhaust ones too, downpipe got 2/3 off, and manifold, got 10/12 off without cutting. Fortunatly even these have been thought about as they are studs, so you can replace them easy enough.

[Turbo-Brown]

Booger, do I need some more oil for the legs when I fit my Billies then?

Good ol' Haynes, just says to pour the oil away

[alan325i]

Haynes if found a good use for my Haynes manal yesturday..............started a bonfire with it, its the only thing its good for